About 50 witnesses will be questioned in the ongoing trial of former assistant interior minister Tomislav Mercep, who on Friday denied the charge of being responsible for the unlawful arrest, torture and killing of civilians from the Zagreb, Kutina and Pakrac areas in 1991, when he was the commander of an Interior Ministry reserve unit.
Mercep pleaded not guilty to every count of the indictment at his arraignment at the Zagreb County Court.
The trial was adjourned until 16 March when the first witnesses are expected to take the witness stand.
The witnesses for the prosecution are victims who survived torture, families of the victims and military, police and other officials active in the Pakracka Poljana area at the time relevant to the indictment.
The defence team will call a dozen of witnesses, most of whom are former officials who will describe Mercep's role and duties in the Interior Ministry. Some of those witnesses are former Prime Minister Franjo Greguric, Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) official Vladimir Seks, former parliament speaker Zarko Domljan, former Interior Ministry official Smiljan Reljic and some other former office-holders.
The trial chamber granted the motion of the defence team to question Croatian Television (HTV) journalist Aleksandar Stankovic. Mercep was a guest in his talk show on Sunday.
Also accepted was a defence motion to order the Interior Ministry to provide the court with daily reports from the Pakrac area at the time relevant to the indictment.
Mercep is accused of ordering the unlawful arrest, torture and killing of civilians at Pakracka Poljana and in Zagreb from October 8 to mid-December 1991, as the commander of an Interior Ministry reserve unit, and of failing to prevent his subordinates from committing those crimes.
Among the victims were three members of the Zec family, killed on 8 December 1991. Although three of Mercep's men confessed to this crime before an investigating judge, they were not indicted because they were questioned without their lawyers present.
Mercep is charged with being at Pakracka Poljana when at least eight civilians were brought there and tortured, three of whom were killed and two went missing.
He is also charged with taking part in the questioning of Djordje Gunjevic, at the time the government's commissioner for the town of Pakrac, who was detained for six days, tortured with an electroshock weapon, beaten, and robbed of a large sum of money. Mercep eventually let him go with the explanation that they had the wrong person.
Mercep is also accused on command responsibility for crimes at Pakracka Poljana for which his men have already been tried, and for the death of 27 unidentified people killed and buried in mass graves at four different locations.
